The Introduction Event: A Product For Prospects
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- —
Priestley built two multi-million-pound businesses on one repeatable structure: rather than promoting the core offer, you promote a low-risk first step that a prospect can say yes to easily. In his case that was a weekly or touring introduction event — 'an introduction to financial planning', 'an introduction to building wealth for retirement' — filled by advertising, direct mail or a partner's list. The event itself delivers genuine information with no pitch; at the end, attendees are invited to book a one-to-one slot in a visible diary. Anyone who books has revealed interest, and that signal is the lead. Priestley's agency partnered with established businesses that were good at delivery but had no time for lead generation, and took payment on a risk-to-reward basis — per lead or per sale — instead of retainers. The digital descendant of the same structure is the scorecard or webinar.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Find a business that is good at delivery but starved of leads
Priestley targeted financial planners, franchisors and speakers — companies rightly focused on their core business with no time for lead generation. The lead-generation problem is the crushing problem for most small businesses, which makes it the easiest one to be paid to solve.
Pro tip Look for crowded expos where sellers stand shoulder to shoulder with 300 competitors — that frustration is your opening.
- 2
Design the low-risk first step, not the core offer
Do not advertise 'do you want to buy a franchise' or 'do you want financial planning'. Advertise an introduction: understand the current market, hear from an expert, learn what the trends are. The first step must cost the prospect almost nothing to accept.
Watch out Promoting the core business is the default mistake and it is why most campaigns get no response.
- 3
Fill the room
Use whatever channels reach the audience — Priestley used newspaper ads, direct mail and fax broadcasting; today it is ads, joint ventures, list swaps and a partner's audience. Target 30 to 100 attendees per event.
Pro tip A list swap — you mail your list for our product, we mail ours for yours — costs nothing and was one of Priestley's earliest lessons.
- 4
Deliver real value and do not pitch
Put an interesting speaker on and teach genuinely useful content. Anyone who turns up has already demonstrated an interest in solving the problem, so the event's job is to build trust, not to close.
Watch out Turning the event into a sales pitch destroys the low-risk premise that got people through the door.
- 5
Offer a visible next step at the end
Priestley's version was a physical diary at the back of the room with highlighted slots — attendees walk up and write their name in for a one-to-one meeting. The visibility of others booking is itself demand and supply tension.
Pro tip The modern equivalent is a booking link handed out live while the room is still warm.
- 6
Get paid on risk-to-reward, not retainer
Priestley took payment per lead or per sale, sometimes with costs covered upfront and a success fee on top — 15 percent of a franchise sale, for example. Most agencies prefer fee-for-service; taking the risk earns the far larger share.
Watch out This means carrying the marketing cost yourself — Priestley's first ad was a seven-thousand-dollar quarter page on a credit card with no way to pay it if no leads came in.
In the wild
At a franchise expo Priestley watched 300 franchisors compete for the same visitors, each drowning in choice and adjacency. He approached one he rated, negotiated a deal, and ran a road show instead: rather than standing shoulder to shoulder with competitors, that franchisor was put in front of 50 potential buyers at a time who had responded to an introduction invitation. The deal covered costs upfront plus 15 percent of the roughly sixty-thousand-dollar franchise success fee.
→ One franchisor got exclusive attention from qualified rooms; Priestley's agency earned a 15% success fee per sale.
Priestley describes a financial planning firm fifteen years in business, excellent at what they did, struggling month to month with flat growth. Nothing about the firm changed except lead generation: forty introduction events were run — introduction to the markets, introduction to investing — filling rooms with people who then booked one-to-ones. The business blew up in no time. Priestley says he watched clients' lives change simply because the lead-generation tap was turned on.
→ A flat fifteen-year-old practice went into rapid growth with no change to the product or the team.
Common mistakes
Advertising the core offer
Asking people to buy the expensive thing cold demands a large commitment from a stranger. The introduction event exists precisely because a low-risk first step converts orders of magnitude better.
Charging a retainer instead of taking the risk
Fee-for-service caps your upside at your invoice. Priestley's leverage came from carrying the marketing risk and sharing in leads or sales, which is where the multiples live.
No booking mechanism at the event
Without a visible, immediate way to raise a hand — a diary, a link, a slot — a warm room disperses and the lead-generation value of the whole exercise evaporates.
From the transcript
“an introduction event is just a low risk first step to introduce the idea”
“anyone who turns up to that event clearly they have an interest in solving a problem but what we're not doing is saying do you…”
“the big lesson I got from John was everything is Downstream from lead generation”
From the episode
How Anyone Can Develop The Mindset Of A Multi-Million Dollar Entrepreneur - Daniel Priestley
Daniel Priestley